On April 27th 2007 EuroSciCon will be holding a meeting entitled “Maintaining Stem Cells and the Regulation of Their Differentiation”at BioPark Hertfordshire, Welwyn Garden City. The Chair of this meeting, Dr Stefan Przyborski (University of Durham) said "Much of the promise of stem cell biology and tissue engineering depends on the ability to maintain and differentiate cells into tissues in a robust and reproducible manner. We are only just at the beginning of understanding how to control cell growth in vitro and produce cell types that are of value to basic research, pharmaceutical development and potential therapeutic applications. This meeting is designed to bring together experts in the field to share their experiences of developing innovative ways to create a more realistic environment for cell growth and differentiation. The aim of this symposium is to therefore recognise that the control of cell differentiation requires an in-depth understanding of the growth conditions and signals cells require in order to differentiate in a particular manner. This will be exemplified by a carefully selected panel of speakers who will share their experiences of controlling cell growth and differentiation using a range of alternative approaches."   more »

EuroSciCon have now released their meetings calendar for 2007. For details please click on the attachment below. You can register for these meetings any time at http://www.euroscicon.com . The EuroSciCon team look forward to seeing you next year!   more »

EuroSciCon will be holding the forthcoming meeting 'NO News is Good News - Detection, Measurements and Quantification of Nitric Oxide: Tools for NO Research' on March 23rd at BioPark Hertfordshire, Welwyn Garden City. This one day meeting features some excellent international speakers and will appeal to anyone working in this field. The Chair of this meeting, Dr Nicholas Warrick (University of Oxford) said ''Nitric oxide (NO), generated by the enzyme nitric oxide synthase (NOS) plays a key role in a diverse range of physiological and pathophysiological conditions within the cardiovascular, immune, reproductive and nervous systems. Since NO is a small, diffusible, highly reactive free radical with a short half-life, and is present in low concentrations, real-time detection of NO is extremely difficult. This meeting will examine methods used to detect and visualise NO-producing cells. Furthermore, direct and indirect techniques used to measure NO will be examined, including among others, the measurement of NOS enzymatic activity, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and NO-sensitive electrodes. Finally, tools that facilitate NO research, such as NOS inhibitors will be examined".   more »

On October 6th, 2006 a group of experts on fish disease, diagnosis and treatment assembled in London to share recent advances in the field. Fish disease significantly impacts environmental balance and commercial productivity on a global basis. Losses have high economic consequences, especially in areas where fishing or aquatic farming and culture are important community-supporting industries. A diverse range of topics was presented beginning with a new assay developed for detection of salmonid alphavirus infections, given by Dr. David Graham from the Fish Disease Unit of the Agri-food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast. Dr. David Hoole, of the University of Keele discussed the utilisation of serum pentraxins as a very rapid diagnostic method to screen and monitor the health of cultured fish populations. Because of the rapid growth currently experienced by the aquaculture industry, DNA vaccination is being evaluated as a means to protect fish from disease. Dr Felicity D’Mello of the Royal Veterinary College in London, detailed the development of a new DNA vaccine for the spring viremia of carp virus (SVCV).   more »

If so Prowess would like to hear from you. We are working with the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) to raise the profile of women business owners in this sector.   more »

EuroSciCon announce that they will be holding the forthcoming meeting 'Glycomics: Challenges and Technology' on November 28th at Imperial College London. This one day meeting features some excellent international speakers and will appeal to anyone working in the rapidly growing field of glycomics. - Professor J. Turnbull from theSchool of Biological Sciences at the University of Liverpool who will chair this meeting said ''Glycomics encompasses the rapidly developing field of large-scale analysis of the "glycome" - the entire complement of complex sugar structures expressed in cells, tissues or whole organisms. Glycans have incredible structural and functional diversity and are critical players in a huge variety of biological processes, many of which have fundamental roles in disease processes. This has created major interest in their potential biotechnology and pharmaceutical applications, but progress has been hampered by the inherent difficulties in studying the structure-functions relationships for these complex molecules. Now, breakthrough technologies are dramatically changing the landscape and creating the opportunity for real progress in glycomics over the next few years".   more »

EuroSciCon announces the launch of a long awaited auction site for life scientists, http://www.lifescienceauctions.com. Just like ebay but representing the niche market of Life Science, you can auction your own items and place bids on items posted. Categories range from science equipment, reagents, books to clothing. The advantage of this site is that the basic listing of any item is free of charge.   more »